rampant consumerism isn't always bad

    To reiterate: things are back on track. Yesterday was quite the weird, off day. I'm pretty sure it's the switch from one migraine prevention medication to another. The one that I'm going to stop taking has a serious weaning regimen, and it takes about 6 months to finish seeing side effects from it. The one that I'm starting to take (which I've used before) has a very gradual introduction process, and a lot of people cannot tolerate even the smallest doses of it. Since I have to take both at once, it is understandable that for a few days I would be feeling the [worst] effects of both. Not to go into much detail, but for most of the day I was dizzy, my head hurt, I was cold, and I was half asleep. I didn't realize that it was happening until it was almost over or I wouldn't have gotten out of bed at all.
    So. Better today.
    I went shopping. Needed groceries and some miscellaneous stuff. Decided to stop at a couple of local shops to get a couple of Christmas gifts while I was out. Looking back, it might have been better to have waited. My patience is still a little thin, so I was more prone to just tossing things into the basket than weighing my options. Weighing is complicated; tossing is easy.
    One of my destinations was the "dime" store at which I buy the majority of my jewelry supplies. I want to make a couple of things for Christmas, and I had a coupon (danger! danger!). Had I only purchased what I intended to get, I might've spent $20.
    $102 later...
Yeah. That's what $102 worth of jewelry supplies looks like. For perspective, that's a regular 12-ounce soda can next to the bag, which could be folded down at least 1/2 way without touching the contents. Yipes.
    After my expletive-laden post yesterday, I mellowed out and [fairly] calmly removed the lights from Christmas tree. Discovered that 2 of them had fallen out somewhere along the line (like, not really all that surprising, given that the stupid thing has moved in and out of storage, lights attached, twice a year every year since 2004). I set the lights aside to discard and replaced them with one of the four others that were in the box of ornaments that I'd pulled out. FOUR. WTF?! I don't know. Anyway, I checked them first, and then put them on the tree. There were a couple that were burned out, so I replaced them with spares from the initial set (smart, eh?). Plunked on a few ornaments. Not so many that it looks over-laden, but enough that it looks like Christmas. Probably 1/10, maybe 1/12 of my entire collection of ornaments. I really should have a house, and 2 full-sized trees. Anyway, here's how it came out:
And this is the obligatory psychedelic version:
    Oh, by the way: sharp-eyed viewers will have noticed that the furniture in my bedroom was rearranged. Nothing like having a social life reversal to inspire me to move furniture. Here's the new layout:
complete with laundry in need of folding and bed in need of making:
and so far I like it pretty well. It's nice to have my head near an inside wall rather than between the outside ones:
    Moving on. I've been meaning/wanting to share pictures and story about this for a while, but my camera and the subject haven't been in the same place at the same time.
    For my birthday, one of my friends did an amazing thing. First, a little background. We became friends through the extended work realm; she's "me" at another institution. You know how sometimes you just know that somebody's cool, even though the circumstances are not? I did one of those things that is totally out of character for me; at a work meeting, at lunch, I walked up and introduced myself and asked if I could join her (and her table-mates). It is *much* more like me to sit by myself (in the back) and stew silently about nobody liking me (and to take comfort in the fact that I don't like anybody else, either), writing in the ever-present notebook so that no one could ever think that I cared that I was by myself.
    So, you see that this person had something that inspired me to go outside my comfort zone, and it was totally worth it. We connected that day, and stayed connected by email and in committee and subcommittee (sigh), and at other face-to-face meetings, and by the occasional surreptitious note sent through the work pipeline.
    She does, by the way, read the blog.
    A couple of months ago, I got a package through the work pipeline. I knew it wasn't work, because it wasn't a work sort of size and shape. When I opened it, I was surprised and pleased to discover a tiny gift bag filled with carefully-wrapped chopstick rests! The accompanying note said something like, "If you like these, look forward to zV. 2." (Dorks will understand right away. Non dorks: that is nerd-code for part 2.)
    A few weeks later, a similar package arrived, with another group of tiny, adorable ceramic chopstick rests. For my birthday. Hand-chosen, wrapped, and either sent or delivered from California by extended family members. Aren't they fantastic? This is my whole collection:
    The ones that she gave me are collected toward the front, bracketed by the Kewpie-dolls:
    My personal favorite is the sort of weaselly guy on the right. I think he's supposed to be a squirrel:
but it's hard to tell exactly:
So. That's what's up. Any questions?